tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68100522443969766072017-09-07T18:08:25.540-07:00Canada's Black Settlements (Underground Railroad)Black Settlements in Canada, beginning in the 1600's. How the Underground Railroad paved the way for freed slaves to settle in Canada.Anita Willsnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6810052244396976607.post-25048653338363854962010-02-23T00:32:00.001-08:002010-12-29T21:14:57.039-08:00Follow the North Star From Slavery to Freedom: Canada's Black Settlements<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"></meta><meta content="Word.Document" name="ProgId"></meta><meta content="Microsoft Word 10" name="Generator"></meta><meta content="Microsoft Word 10" name="Originator"></meta><link href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CAnita%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List"></link><link href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CAnita%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_editdata.mso" rel="Edit-Time-Data"></link><o:smarttagtype name="City" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype name="date" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype name="PlaceType" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype name="PlaceName" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype name="State" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype name="country-region" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype name="place" namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"></o:smarttagtype><style>
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</style> <br /><div class="MsoBodyText">The Underground Railroad was neither Underground, nor was it a Railroad. It was in essence a series of conductors, safe houses, trails along rivers, secret routes, sometimes walking, and other times hiding in wagons. Before Europeans arrived, North and <st1:place>South America</st1:place> was comprised of thousands of Native American Tribes. Native Cultures date back at least ten thousand years, having traveled over the <st1:place>Bering Strait</st1:place> into <st1:place>North America</st1:place>. As <st1:country-region><st1:place>America</st1:place></st1:country-region> was Colonized, the Native population was reduced by disease, wars, and intermixing.&nbsp; The Natives watched, as the land they lived on and revered, became commercial ventures for European Settlers. Having suffered through that institution it is understandable why some would assist with the escape of African Slaves.&nbsp; The Indian Trails slaves followed went north, to freedom. The further north, the more freedom, and <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> was about as far north as they could imagine. In fact Bruxton Settlement in Ontario Canada is situation in the same region as the Onondaga Reservation. There are very few historians who link escaped slaves with the First Peoples of America. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText"><br />Conductors on the railroad came from various backgrounds and included free blacks, Native Americans, white abolitionist, and other escaped slaves. One of the most notable Conductors was Harriet Tubman, who was an escaped slave from <st1:state><st1:place>Maryland</st1:place></st1:state>. She risked her life to assist other slaves escape. Religious Organizations such as Quakers, Methodists, and Baptists, also assisted slaves. Individuals were often organized in small, groups, in which some knew of, Stations along the route but few details of their immediate area. Escaped slaves would move along the route from one-way station to the next, steadily making their way north.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">BLACKS IN <st1:country-region><st1:place>CANADA</st1:place></st1:country-region> <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">The original inhabitants of what is now <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> were Native Americans, including the <st1:place>Aleutians</st1:place> (Eskimo), who lived further north. Remnants of the original tribes continue to live in that region. Slavery, which was practiced within <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s current geography, was practiced primarily by the French Empire. Moreover, free and enslaved Blacks who fled the <st1:country-region><st1:place>United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> after the American Revolution had their freedom guaranteed upon arrival. <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> was also the final destination for thousands of enslaved Blacks who came to freedom in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>, by the Underground Railroad.&nbsp; <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">The first recorded black person to set foot on land now known as Canada was a free man named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathieu_de_Costa" title="Mathieu de Costa"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Mathieu de Costa</span></a>, who traveled with explorer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_de_Champlain" title="Samuel de Champlain"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Samuel de Champlain</span></a>, and arrived in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Scotia" title="Nova Scotia"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Nova Scotia</span></a> some time between 1603 and 1608 as a translator for the French explorer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Dugua,_Sieur_de_Monts" title="Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts</span></a>. The first known black person to live in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> was a slave from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madagascar" title="Madagascar"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Madagascar</span></a> named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivier_Le_Jeune" title="Olivier Le Jeune"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Olivier Le Jeune</span></a>, who may have been of partial <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malays_%28ethnic_group%29" title="Malays (ethnic group)"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Malay</span></a> ancestry. As a group, black people arrived in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> in several waves. The first of these came as free persons serving in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Army" title="French Army"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">French Army</span></a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Navy" title="French Navy"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Navy</span></a>; some were enslaved. Later, some were <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servant" title="Indentured servant"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">indentured servants</span></a>, as were some white immigrants. From 1628 to 1759 (when the British conquered <st1:place>New France</st1:place>), 1132 slaves were transported to <st1:place>New France</st1:place>, all of African descent. In 1688, Governor Denonville’s request for royal permission to import slaves directly from <st1:place>Africa</st1:place> was denied. A direct slave trade from <st1:place>Africa</st1:place> to <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> was never established.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1796" title="1796"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">1796</span></a>, a group of fiercely independent rebels known as the Trelawney <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maroons" title="Maroons"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Maroons</span></a>, were moved from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica" title="Jamaica"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Jamaica</span></a> to <st1:state><st1:place>Nova Scotia</st1:place></st1:state>, following their long battle against colonization. While there, these <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_Maroons" title="Jamaican Maroons"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Jamaican Maroons</span></a> deterred an attack by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon" title="Napoleon"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Napoleon</span></a> and constructed parts of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Citadel" title="Halifax Citadel"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Halifax Citadel</span></a> and all of Government House. After only a few winters, the British government decided it would be cheaper to send them to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Leone" title="Sierra Leone"><span style="color: black; text-decoration: none;">Sierra Leone</span></a> than to try to persuade them to farm in a cold country. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">Slavery in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> remained virtually nonexistent, due to a short growing season and the economic impracticality of housing and feeding idle slaves over the winter months. Most of the slaves were “body” or family servants for wealthy officials or for families living in urban areas. Unlike the large plantations in the South, where a large number of slaves were owned, Canadian households tended to have one slave only or, at the most, a very small number. Slaves usually served the same family during their lifetime. Very few slaves were in the <st1:city><st1:place>Owen Sound</st1:place></st1:city> area during the eighteenth century; most tended to be south, in the <st1:place>Niagara</st1:place> area. The majority of slaves in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> originated from either the <st1:place>French West Indies</st1:place> or the colonies of <st1:place>British North America</st1:place>. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">With the fight for independence from the British in 1776 came an awareness of the slaves in the colonies; the antislavery movement began to take hold in the Northern colonies. Slaves who fought in the war against the British were granted their freedom, creating a fairly substantial class of free Blacks in both the North and the South. Yet again, freedom for Black American citizens was not equal to that of free whites; there were still limitations place on them. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">In 1779, all Black men, women and children were invited to fight for the British against the Americans in the American Revolution; they were promised their freedom in return. Ten percent of the Loyalists that arrived in the Maritimes at this time were Black. White Loyalists fleeing to <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> brought with them about 2000 slaves. The majority (about 1200) of Blacks settled, with their owners, in the three Eastern provinces of <st1:state><st1:place>Prince Edward Island</st1:place></st1:state>, <st1:state><st1:place>New Brunswick</st1:place></st1:state> and <st1:state><st1:place>Nova Scotia</st1:place></st1:state>. About 500 were in <st1:state><st1:place>Ontario</st1:place></st1:state> (<st1:state><st1:place>Upper Canada</st1:place></st1:state>) and 300 in <st1:state><st1:place>Quebec</st1:place></st1:state> (<st1:place>Lower Canada</st1:place>). Here, too, slave numbers per household were small and most were domestic servants, farm hands and skilled artisans. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">The <st1:state><st1:place>Upper Canada</st1:place></st1:state> Abolition Act<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">In 1793, the Upper Canada Abolition Act, supported by Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe, freed any slave who came into <st1:state><st1:place>Ontario</st1:place></st1:state> (<st1:state><st1:place>Upper Canada</st1:place></st1:state>), and stipulated that any child born of a slave mother would be free at the age of 25. <st1:state><st1:place>Upper Canada</st1:place></st1:state> became the first British territory to pass an antislavery act. In the other Canadian provinces, by 1800, slavery was effectively limited through various court rulings. The onus was on the slave owner to provide positive proof of ownership; this proof was rarely available.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">Slaves were treated differently in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> from their counterparts in the <st1:country-region><st1:place>United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Gang labor with its accompanying brutality did not exist in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Canadian masters did not feel threatened by their slaves. Canadian slaves were allowed to learn to read and write, while in the States it was illegal to teach slaves to do so. Slave marriages were legal and Christian worship was encouraged. Upon arrival in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>, the first thing free slaves often chose to do was to reaffirm their slave marriage vows according to Canadian law.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">All Blacks, whether in slavery or freedom, found a sense of community through their strong spiritual faith and in their churches. Here, too, under the teachings of Christianity, plantation slaves were able to gather together and exchange information through coded phrases and spirituals of which their white owners were unaware.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">Returning from the War of 1812, American soldiers took with them the knowledge of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s virtual lack of slavery. This information enticed many slaves to make a bid for freedom. In <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>, by 1841, there were many Black communities. An 1850 <st1:place>Sandwich</st1:place> newspaper article stated there were 24-30,000 Blacks living in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6810052244396976607#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: 12pt;">[1]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">FREE BLACK SETTLEMENTS<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The earliest Black communities were established in the <st1:state><st1:place>Maritime Provinces</st1:place></st1:state>; Birch town became the largest settlement of free Africans outside <st1:place>Africa</st1:place>. The first large wave of Africans to arrive in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> were free Black Loyalists invited by the British government and promised land, provisions, and freedom for their support during the American War of Independence. Lord Dunmore, governor of <st1:state><st1:place>Virginia</st1:place></st1:state>, invited all male slaves owned by Rebels to join the British cause, promising them freedom. As losses mounted, Henry Clinton, the British Commander-in-Chief, invited all slaves to join the British, again promising freedom. At least 3500 Blacks supported the British and were landed in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>, 10% of all Loyalists. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">Blacks were the last to receive plots of land, often waiting years. Part of the problem was the amount of land to be surveyed, with too few surveyors. Land was usually remote, rocky, and too small to feed a family. Those who came into <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> on the Underground Railroad faced different obstacles. Initially, they were seen as valuable workers. Then the trickle became a flood of Black arrivals. By the 1840s and following the American Civil War, they were not as welcome, since immigration from <st1:place>Europe</st1:place> had increased. They were expected to return to the <st1:country-region><st1:place>United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>, but the former enslaved Blacks did not necessarily have a place to return to. Free Blacks, some of whom had been born in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>, would have had to forfeit their homes and businesses. However, they had established themselves and <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> was their home.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6810052244396976607#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: 12pt;">[2]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">By the 1850's there were six 'firmly rooted' black communities in <st1:state><st1:place>Ontario</st1:place></st1:state>: <br />1. <st1:place>Central Ontario</st1:place> (<st1:city><st1:place>London</st1:place></st1:city>, Queen's Bush, <st1:city><st1:place>Brantford</st1:place></st1:city>, Wilberforce) <br />2. Chatham (Dawn, <st1:city><st1:place>Elgin</st1:place></st1:city>) <br />3. <st1:city><st1:place>Detroit</st1:place></st1:city> Frontier (Amherstburgh, <st1:place>Sandwich</st1:place>, <st1:city><st1:place>Windsor</st1:place></st1:city>) <br />4. <st1:place><st1:placename>Niagara</st1:placename> <st1:placetype>Peninsula</st1:placetype></st1:place> (St. Catharine's, <st1:city><st1:place>Niagara Falls</st1:place></st1:city>, <st1:city><st1:place>Newark</st1:place></st1:city>, <st1:place>Fort Erie</st1:place>) <br />5. <st1:place>Northern Simcoe</st1:place> &amp; <st1:place><st1:placename>Grey</st1:placename> <st1:placename>Counties</st1:placename></st1:place> (Oro, Collingwood, <st1:city><st1:place>Owen Sound</st1:place></st1:city>) <br />6. Urban Centers on <st1:place><st1:placetype>Lake</st1:placetype> <st1:placename>Ontario</st1:placename></st1:place> (<st1:city><st1:place>Hamilton</st1:place></st1:city>, <st1:city><st1:place>Toronto</st1:place></st1:city>)<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">Other Settlements:<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">Buxton (<st1:city><st1:place>Elgin</st1:place></st1:city>) Settlement&nbsp; 1849 - The Elgin Settlement, also known as Buxton, was one of four organized black settlements to be developed in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The black population of Canada West and Chatham was already high due to the area's proximity to the <st1:country-region><st1:place>United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The land was purchased by the Elgin Association through the Presbyterian Synod for creating a settlement. The land lay twelve miles south of <st1:city><st1:place>Chatham</st1:place></st1:city>. The Reverend William King believed that blacks could function successfully in a working society if given the same educational opportunities as white children. "Blacks are intellectually capable of absorbing classical and abstract matters.” Being a reverend and teacher, the building of a school and church in the settlement was a necessity to him. The settlement also was home to the logging industry. George Brown, who later became one of the Fathers of Confederation, was a supporter of William King and helped build the settlement.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">William Parker, a former slave and Abolitionist, from Lancaster County Pennsylvania, Joined the Settlement in 1851.&nbsp; Although a Free man, Parker was forced to flee to <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> on the Underground Railroad, after a fatal incident. On <st1:date day="11" month="9" year="1851">September 11, 1851</st1:date>, his home in Christiana was besieged by Edward Gorsuch, a slaveholder from <st1:state><st1:place>Maryland</st1:place></st1:state>, a Federal Marshall, and a Posse.&nbsp; Gorsuch was demanding that Parker turn over his property (slaves), to him. The fugitive slave law, allowed Gorsuch to cross into Non-slave holding states seeking escaped slaves. The confrontation that occurred resulted in the death of Edward Gorsuch, and the attack of his party, by angry blacks. &nbsp;Following the extraordinary events of September 11th, William Parker and his family set out for <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The way to <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> was long and dangerous so William went on without his family. Newspapers contained the accounts of Christiana and stores of reward money for William Parker required William to go on to <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> alone. In <st1:place><st1:city>Rochester</st1:city>, <st1:state>New York</st1:state></st1:place> William received assistance from Frederick Douglass. They had known each other from their days as <st1:state><st1:place>Maryland</st1:place></st1:state> slaves. From <st1:city><st1:place>Rochester</st1:place></st1:city>, the party crossed over into the freedom of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">The party landed at <st1:city><st1:place>Kingston</st1:place></st1:city> on the <st1:date day="21" month="9" year="1851">September 21, 1851</st1:date>. From <st1:city><st1:place>Kingston</st1:place></st1:city>, William Parker moved on to <st1:city><st1:place>Toronto</st1:place></st1:city>. When he arrived in <st1:city><st1:place>Toronto</st1:place></st1:city>, Parker learned of Pennsylvania Governor Johnston's demand for his return under the Extradition Treaty. Canadian officials assured him that he would not be returned to <st1:state><st1:place>Pennsylvania</st1:place></st1:state>. His wife joined him in <st1:city><st1:place>Toronto</st1:place></st1:city>. She had experienced a difficult period following the Resistance and William's escape to <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>. She had been arrested twice and her master had pursued her. They settled together, free on fifty acres in the Buxton Settlement. William Parker returned to the <st1:country-region><st1:place>United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> and fought in the 54th <st1:state><st1:place>Massachusetts</st1:place></st1:state>, and then returned to <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>. &nbsp;<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">William Parker is now a Folk Hero in Christiana <st1:state><st1:place>Pennsylvania</st1:place></st1:state>, and has been the subject of plays and books. The blacks who participated in the event at Christiana were tried and acquitted of treason. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6810052244396976607#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: 12pt;">[3]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText"><br /></div><div class="MsoBodyText">Little Africa On Hamilton Mountain (part of the Niagara Escarpment) near Fort Erie, a small village called 'Little Africa' came into being and by 1840 it had a population of 80 blacks. Over the next forty years the population reached a height of 200 before inhabitants moved away and left the their village a 'ghost town' by 1880. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">Dawn (Settlement Founded by Josiah Henson) In February 2005, an agreement was reached with the St. Clair Parks Commission and the Government of Ontario to transfer ownership and operation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site to the Ontario Heritage Trust.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">At a bend in the <st1:place><st1:placename>Sydenham</st1:placename> <st1:placetype>River</st1:placetype></st1:place> near the town of <st1:city><st1:place>Dresden</st1:place></st1:city> stands Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site. The museum – built on the site of the Black settlement that Rev. Josiah Henson helped found in 1841 – preserves the settlement where Henson and his wife Nancy lived. Today, thousands of people make pilgrimages to Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site to discover more about our past.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site takes its name from Harriet Beecher Stowe's successful 1852 anti-slavery novel <i><span style="font-style: normal;">Uncle Tom's Cabin</span></i>, featuring a character named Tom (loosely based on Josiah Henson). Henson's own story is told in his autobiography, first published in 1849.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">Josiah Henson was born into slavery on <st1:date day="15" month="6" year="1789">June 15, 1789</st1:date> near Port Tobacco in Charles County, Maryland. As a slave, Henson experienced horrifying conditions. He was separated from his parents, sold twice and maimed for life after being beaten. In 1829, Henson arranged to purchase his freedom with money he earned by preaching to Methodist congregations. Betrayed by his master, Henson was taken to <st1:city><st1:place>New Orleans</st1:place></st1:city> to be sold. Henson escaped slavery by fleeing northwards with his wife and four children using the Underground Railroad, eventually crossing the <st1:place>Niagara River</st1:place> into <st1:state><st1:place>Upper Canada</st1:place></st1:state> (now <st1:state><st1:place>Ontario</st1:place></st1:state>) on <st1:date day="28" month="10" year="1830">October 28, 1830</st1:date>.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText"><st1:state><st1:place>Upper Canada</st1:place></st1:state> had become a haven for Black refugees from the <st1:country-region><st1:place>United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> after 1793 when Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe passed an "<i><span style="font-style: normal;">An Act to prevent the further introduction of Slaves, and to limit the Term of Contracts for Servitude within this Province</span></i>." Although the legislation didn't free slaves living in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>, it prohibited the importation of slaves to the province. This meant that refugees from slavery were free as soon as they set foot in <st1:state><st1:place>Ontario</st1:place></st1:state>. By 1830, when Henson arrived, the Black community in <st1:state><st1:place>Upper Canada</st1:place></st1:state> consisted of Black Loyalists who had fought for the British during the American Revolution, African American refugees from the War of 1812, and others.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">Henson started his life in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> working as a farm labourer and a lay preacher in the <st1:city><st1:place>Waterloo</st1:place></st1:city> area. In 1834, he moved to <st1:place>Colchester</st1:place> with 12 friends and established a Black settlement on land rented from the government. There, in 1836, Henson met Hiram Wilson, a missionary from the American Anti-Slavery Society who ministered to Black Canadians. <st1:city><st1:place>Wilson</st1:place></st1:city> introduced Henson to one of his friends, James Canning Fuller, a Quaker from <st1:state><st1:place>New York</st1:place></st1:state>. With financial assistance from <st1:city><st1:place>Wilson</st1:place></st1:city> and a silent partner (probably Fuller), Henson purchased 200 acres in <st1:place><st1:placename>Dawn</st1:placename> <st1:placename>Township</st1:placename></st1:place> to build a self-sufficient community for fugitives from slavery.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">The Dawn Settlement, as it was called, centered on the British-American Institute – an all-ages manual school that trained teachers and provided a general education. The school opened in 1842 "to cultivate the <i><span style="font-style: normal;">entire being</span></i>, and elicit the fairest and fullest possible development of the physical, intellectual and moral powers," and to provide Black Canadians with the skills they needed to prosper and to disprove the racist beliefs of proponents of slavery who argued that Blacks were incapable of independent living.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">The Dawn Settlement grew to include mills and a brickyard. Settlers cleared their land and grew crops – mainly wheat, corn and tobacco – and exported locally grown black walnut lumber to <st1:country-region><st1:place>Britain</st1:place></st1:country-region> and the <st1:country-region><st1:place>United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>. At its peak, about five hundred people lived at the Dawn Settlement. Henson purchased two hundred acres of land adjacent to the community, where his family lived (one hundred of which he sold back to the Settlement at a discounted price). He preached in the Dawn Settlement's community church and served on the executive committee of the Institute.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">The Dawn Settlement developed administrative problems and in 1849, the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society took over its management. After the school closed in 1868, the Dawn Settlement began to fade. Most residents either returned to the <st1:country-region><st1:place>United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> where slavery was abolished or moved to other communities in <st1:state><st1:place>Ontario</st1:place></st1:state>. Josiah and Nancy Henson, however, continued to live in Dawn for the rest of their lives.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">Throughout his life, Henson was an important leader for <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s growing Black community. He led a Black militia unit during the Rebellion of 1837, advocated in support of literacy and education for Blacks, toured parts of the United States and Britain to raise funds to support his activities and helped Black Canadians to join the Union Army to fight against slavery during the American Civil War. Today, plaques from the Ontario Heritage Trust and the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada commemorate the remarkable contributions of this man.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6810052244396976607#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: 12pt;">[4]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">The Queen's Bush <br />The Queen's Bush was the chief area of settlement for those who ventured into 'the bush' starting in the 1840's <br />From Claude Smith: The term Queen's Bush was a general reference used by early settlers. Since it didn't exist, we cannot give it an official definition. Within Wellington County, "Queen's Bush" usually refers to Peel and Mary borough Township. You could probably also include Arthur Township and Minto Township, such is the arbitrary nature of this definition. I think the term "Queen's Bush" was used because Peel and Maryborough were clergy reserves and therefore not open to settlement (i.e., owned by the Queen). <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">Oro <br />On 26 Apr 1819 the settlement of Oro was authorized by Maitland. To promote settlement (Upper Canada officials wanted the Lake Huron/Georgian Bay areas protected in the event of a backdoor attack from the US), black 1812 veterans were offered land grants in Simcoe County. They were given 40 ha, while white settlers were given 80 ha. Blacks who took up this offer were among the first settlers in Simcoe County. By the late 1820's land tickets were no longer required. Instead land was sold for one shilling per acre (.4 ha), then by 1831 the price was raised to five shillings. The village of Edgar was the main center of Black life in Oro. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">Pierpoint Settlement <br />From Claude Smith: Sometimes called the "Pierpoint Settlement", was in Garafraxa Township just outside present-day Fergus. The first settlers in this area were black soldiers who fought in the Butler's Rangers regiment and in the War of 1812. Richard Pierpoint and approximately eight to ten other black veterans of War of 1812 were given land grants in Garafraxa. The settlement broke up about 1840 and the people left to other black settlements near Glen Allan, Priceville and Collingwood. <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">Wilberforce <br />Established when Blacks in the Cincinnati area found that remaining in Ohio would be dangerous. They sent a committee to Canada to petition for help. They were given a welcome and decided to go ahead and purchase an area of land in Biddulph Twp. In Oct 1829 five to six families arrived in their new home. A few weeks later they were joined by 15 families from Boston. They became the first settlers of the township. Poor leadership &amp; other factors caused this new settlement to fail and by 1835 the settlement only contained a few families.<a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6810052244396976607#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: 12pt;">[5]</span></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The settlements and towns formed and settled by blacks continue to thrive in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>. During the Civil War, many Canadian Freedmen returned to the <st1:country-region><st1:place>United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> and fought with the <st1:place>Union</st1:place>. Some returned and settled in the <st1:country-region><st1:place>United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> while others visited family and friends. The connections between Canadian Freedmen and African Americans remain a strong one. Canadian blacks have not forgotten that their history in the <st1:place><st1:placename>Unites</st1:placename> <st1:placetype>States</st1:placetype></st1:place>, and their commitment to freedom.&nbsp; <o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText"><br /></div><div class="MsoBodyText">We salute our Canadian brothers and sisters whose Ancestors followed the North Star to Freedom!<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoBodyText"><br /></div><div class="MsoBodyText"><br /></div><div><br /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div id="ftn1"><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6810052244396976607#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: 10pt;">[1]</span></span></span></a> Slavery in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region>;&nbsp; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Canada">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Canada</a>, <st1:date day="22" month="2" year="2010">February 22, 2010</st1:date><o:p></o:p></div></div><div id="ftn2"><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6810052244396976607#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: 10pt;">[2]</span></span></span></a> Black Settlements in Early Canada; <a href="http://blackhistorycanada.ca/theme.php?id">http://blackhistorycanada.ca/theme.php?id</a>=, <st1:date day="22" month="2" year="2010">February 22, 2010</st1:date><o:p></o:p></div></div><div id="ftn3"><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6810052244396976607#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: 10pt;">[3]</span></span></span></a> Authors Note: William Parker is a distant relative of the Author of this blog</div></div><div id="ftn4"><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6810052244396976607#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: 10pt;">[4]</span></span></span></a> <i>Author’s Note: Josiah Henson is distant relative of the Author of this Blog</i></div></div><div id="ftn5"><div class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6810052244396976607#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="color: black; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;; font-size: 10pt;">[5]</span></span></span></a> All "quotations" above come from the 'Canadian Encyclopedia, 1988' or 'The Freedom Seekers. Blacks in Early <st1:country-region><st1:place>Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region> by Daniel G. Hill, 1981' </div></div></div>Anita Willshttps://plus.google.com/102445557620905627505noreply@blogger.com1